Jonathan Rea tops winter test at Jerez on new-for-2021 Kawasaki

Jonathan Rea tested the new 2021 Kawasaki he hopes will fire him to a magnificent seventh World Superbike title next year for the first time at Jerez in Spain.
By Kyle White
Published 18th Nov 2020, 20:32 BST
Updated 18th Nov 2020, 20:34 BST
Jonathan Rea on the 2021 Kawasaki ZX-10RR during the winter test at Jerez in Spain.Jonathan Rea on the 2021 Kawasaki ZX-10RR during the winter test at Jerez in Spain.
Jonathan Rea on the 2021 Kawasaki ZX-10RR during the winter test at Jerez in Spain.

And the 33-year-old made an immediate impact, with Rea topping the times on the final day of the two-day winter test on Wednesday on the new-look ZX-10RR.

Sporting a revamped front fairing to improve aerodynamics and front-end stability, the latest version of the Kawasaki has retained a similar set-up to the 2020 bike Rea rode to his record sixth consecutive world crown this year.

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The Northern Ireland rider – second quickest on Tuesday behind American Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha) – has also been assessing a new engine in both the 2020 and 2021 machines at Jerez.

Rea said: “We started to work with some items for 2021, part of the test plan KHI sent us.

“Like always we were collecting information and tried many things – a different front fairing to give our feedback to Kawasaki, engine feeling, front fork, some brake items and a front tyre for Pirelli.

“We did quite a lot of work and I set a lot of laps today with an old tyre,” added Rea.

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“I have not been super-fast with a fresh tyre but the more laps I did on a tyre the faster I got - that is a good problem to have!

“There were pluses and minuses and we have a lot of information to go back now and assess everything before we return to the track and go further at Motorland next week.”

Rea clocked the fastest lap with around 15 minutes of the session remaining, giving him the top spot by half-a-second from PATA Yamaha’s Toprak Razgatlioglu, while Briton Alex Lowes – who also had the chance to test the new Kawasaki – was third fastest, only a few hundredths of a second down on Razgatlioglu.

Gerloff was fourth on the time sheets as, like Razgatlioglu, he tested the 2020 and 2021 YZF-R1 machines throughout the day.

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Briton Leon Haslam (Team HRC) slotted into fifth on the Honda Fireblade, 1.5s down on Rea’s time, with reigning World Supersport champion and Superbike newcomer Andrea Locatelli (GRT Yamaha) completing the top six.

Underlining the potential of the 2021 ZX-10RR, Rea’s best lap time of 1m 38.324s was only one tenth off the all-time WSBK record at Jerez set last year.

A second winter test will take place next week at Motorland Aragon from November 25-26.

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Related topics:Jonathan ReaSpainAlex LowesNorthern Ireland